Quick Takes: Space, Patents, Cells, Brains, and John Birchers

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Private colleges have more space per student than public colleges, according to an inventory prepared by the Society for College and University Planning. The study is based on data from more than 200 colleges of various types.

The U.S. patent and trademark office released its annual ranking of the top 10 universities in patents. For 2004, as in 2003, the University of California led the list. The rankings were largely similar to last year's, but the University of Illinois, which was ranked 20th in 2003, jumped to 9th on the 2004 list.

Harvard University is moving ahead with plans to clone human cells to make embryonic stem cells for various research projects, The Boston Globe reported Sunday. The article said that final review is pending, but that after a year of study, the university believes that the work is ethical and significant to science.

The Maharishi University of Management, which offers educational programs in Iowa based in part on meditation, is starting a program to track changes in students' brains as they learn and go about other campus activities, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday.

A new university, founded on the ideals of the John Birch Society, will begin offering courses in the fall. Robert Welch University, named for the society's founder, has been authorized by the state of Wisconsin to start offering an associate degree. The program will focus, according to the university's Web site, on the liberal arts, from a philosophy of "Americanism."